Everything about baseball got bigger during Bud Seligs reign as commissioner.Whats important to remember is how. Because the same outsized contributions that earned him entry into the Hall of Fame should crack open the door wide enough for stars from the super-sized era to squeeze in behind him. Its time.One big reason attendance, TV revenues and franchise values all grew while he was in charge was that players like Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens -- taking advantage of a lax drug policy and the see-no-evil administration Selig headed for years -- bulked up even faster.So now that the Hall of Fame voters put him in, how are they going to justify keeping those two, as well as a handful of others, out?Well have a more definitive answer a year from now, when the Class of 2018 is announced and the 16-member veterans panel that elected Selig is done sifting through the games past to recognize other deserving candidates. But heres how at least one member of the current veterans committee feels.I dont believe any doors are open, said Andre Dawson, Class of 2010. I just dont think this is the time that that should be moved forward. I can echo the sentiments of some Hall of Famers on that. It may happen in the future.As a committee, he added, we didnt feel like we are the ones to make the decision at this time.At this time?For the better part of three decades, Hall voters have tried to have it both ways when it comes to steroids. Theres almost certainly more than a handful of players who showed up for their induction ceremony in Cooperstown wearing a baseball cap a size or two larger than the one they broke into the big leagues with. Others were racist, drunks, abusers and worse.Thus far, voters have had to sort through the names implicated in drug busts, whispering campaigns and supposedly inside information. Most of the time, theyve made decisions based on their gut. The result is about as unscientific and hypocritical as youd suspect.While the totals for both Bonds and Clemens -- by any objective measure, two of the most accomplished players ever -- creeped up slightly the last few years, theyve topped out at 45 percent (75 percent is required for induction). But just two years ago, Mike Piazza and Jeff Bagwell -- both admitted using a since-banned substance during their careers -- picked up more than half and nearly two-thirds of those same voters.So if nothing else, Seligs induction will remind us of something USA Todays Bob Nightengale said to Hall voters ahead of the 2016 class announcement, Come on, this isnt the Sistine Chapel.The Hall will rightly celebrate Selig for all the good hes done for the game. He was a patient, consensus-building boss who advocated tirelessly for small- and middle-market owners and always acted in what he genuinely believed were the best interests of baseball. If the bottom line was the only relevant consideration, Selig would have been carried into the Hall on the shoulders of all the owners whose pockets he lined with cash.But being good for the owners also made Selig bad for the players more than once, too. He was involved in the collusion scandal as an owner and led the palace coup to dethrone Fay Vincent and erase any remaining notions that the commissioners office was even-handed. He proved that by becoming the public face and backroom leader of the owners cabal that forced the most destructive strike in baseball history and the only cancellation of a World Series.But for all the pitched labor battles Selig waged, his biggest sin was turning a blind eye to the wave of PEDs that swept across baseball coming out of that 1994 strike. Remember, it was Selig who dispatched a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission -- read: junket -- to the Caribbean in 2002 to rummage through the factories where baseballs are made.Even he must have suspected by then they were poking under the wrong hides. And to his credit, Selig spent most of his last decade in office trying to clean up the mess. The safeguards in place are better and baseball is arguably less doped-up than its been in a long time.The veterans panel that put Selig in had all that information before casting ballots. The conclusion it reached is that, on balance, his record of service to the game outweighed those flaws. Bonds and Clemens and more than a few others who thrived during the steroid era -- like Selig and nearly everybody else in his employ -- deserve the same consideration.---(This version of story corrects Bonds and Clemens vote totals to 45 percent from one-third and that the next Hall of Fame class is 2018).Jim Litke is a sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at jlitke(at)ap.org and https://Twitter.com/JimLitke Wholesale Rangers Jerseys . -- Cam Newton pranced into the end zone, placed his hands over his chest and did his familiar Superman pose. Ryan Rua Jersey . But what about the officials? 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Williams scored 11 points in 10 minutes, Alan Anderson scored 17 points, and the Brooklyn Nets finished the exhibition season with a 108-87 win over the Miami Heat on Friday night. RIO DE JANEIRO -- It was a Dutch sweep at Copacabana.Their first Olympic gold in open water swimming was never in doubt.The second one took a few minutes to sort out.Ferry Weertman of the Netherlands beat Greeces Spiros Gianniotis in a photo finish Tuesday off one of the worlds most iconic beaches, a frenetic finish to a 10-kilometer marathon that was in striking contrast to Sharon van Rouwendaals dominating victory the previous day.While the womens race was decided by a whopping 17.4 seconds, a pack of mens swimmers led by Gianniotis powered into the finish chute stroke for stroke as hundreds of cheering, swimsuit-clad fans ran along the beach to watch the ending.The medals were in doubt until the very end -- and even for a bit longer after that, as the officials tried to sort things out.Gianniotis appeared to go under the finish line first, but he had to reach back to grab the timing pad. Weertman got his hand on the pad a split-second ahead of the Greek swimmer -- a finish so close they were both credited with the same time, 1 hour, 52 minutes, 59.8 seconds.Even after I touched the wall, I wasnt sure Id won, Weertman said. It took me a while. I called my friends back home and they said, You won, you won! and Im like, Oh really? I couldnt believe it. I still cant believe it.The 36-year-old Gianniotis missed a chance to give Greece its first swimming gold since the inaugural Summer Olympics in 1896. He has competed in all three open water events since the sport was added to the Olympic program in 2008, but this was his first medal.It was also the final event of his career.Every single meter of the training, every single day and hour, its just come down to the perfect moment, Gianniotis said. I think thats a really good way to go.The bronze went to Frances Marc-Antoine Olivier, who out-touched Chinas Lijun Zu in another result that required a photo to sort out. Britains Jack Burnell was right in the mix, as well, but he wound up being disqualified for a tussle with defending Olympic champion Ous Mellouli just a few meters from the line.It was the second day in a row that a potential medal was stripped away because of rough tactics in the chute. On Monday, Frances Aurelie Muller lost the silver when she collided with Italys Rachele Bruni right at the finish. TThis time, the ruling went Frances way.ddddddddddddIts only when I got into the boat that I knew my position, Olivier said. Then I started crying.Burnell ripped the judges, who had earlier issued him a yellow card at a time when he insisted no other swimmers were even around him.Weve trained for four years, put a lot of hard work into this. This is the pinnacle of our sport, the Olympic Games, and its ruined by a couple of judges who want to stick their noses in just because they want something to do, Burnell said. Just let the guys race.American Jordan Wilimovsky was fifth. He briefly had the lead on the final lap, but got stuck in the middle of a pack of swimmers and finished 3.4 seconds behind.Its just the nature of the event, Wilimovsky said. It comes down to touch finishes sometimes. Congrats to the guys that did really well. It was a really tough race.Trying to duplicate Van Rouwendaals strategy, Australias Jarrod Poort broke away from the pack in the early going, building a huge lead of more than a minute at the midway point.He couldnt hold on, getting passed on the last of four laps around the bay and finishing 20th.Mellouli, in what was likely his final Olympic race, settled for 12th.Once again, there were no complaints about the water quality at Copacabana, which was the subject of much scrutiny in the lead-up to the games after an Associated Press report that found potential health risks caused by the dumping of raw sewage into the waters around Rio.It was great, Wilimovsky said. I didnt notice anything wrong or anything bad. It was really nice. The water temperature was really good. It was just fun to be out there.Another American swimmer, Sean Ryan, took antibiotics and probiotics to ward off any potential health risks.I did as much as I could to prevent illness, Ryan said. Well see what happens in the next two weeks. We may be playing roulette with it, but we prepared as well as we could.Ryan said it seemed like any other normal ocean race, which calm conditions off the hotel-lined beach making things easier for the competitors.Your mouth feels all funky afterward, he said with a smile, like a normal salt water race. ' ' '